Numerous types of flooring are laid upon underlying sub floors or concrete slabs and fixed by using adhesive materials. The adhesive must be spread evenly over the underlying surface prior to the placement of the covering material. For example parket floors, wooden floors, laminated boards, tiles, carpets or roll out flooring materials are all applied over an adhesive. It should be noted, however that the present invention is not limited to flooring but can for instance be utilised in the laying of roofing materials as well.
Typically, the adhesives are spread by a hand trowel such as the one described in EP 1,018,585A1, where the persons spreading the adhesive would carry out the work on their knees. This result in the work being physically difficult and relatively slow, especially where large areas like industrial complexes, sports arenas, office areas etc. are concerned.
Attempts have been made in the past to improve on this known technique but with limited success. The improvements have typically involved the trowel being able to be used whilst the person is in an upright position. Examples of these can be seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,982,470, 3,803,662 and 3,611,470, where the tool can either be dragged or drawn to spread the adhesive layer.
As mentioned above, these adhesive spreaders have various limitations and are not as effective as they might be. It has been noted that there is still a need to be able to reliably spread an even layer of adhesive material using non-complex machinery, which can be easily cleaned after use. Machinery known in the field uses compressors and external electrical sources to apply the adhesive and power the machinery. This has the disadvantage of lacking versatility, due to the size and weight of the machinery, and furthermore because large compressors are needed to be set up before the spreader can function and many building sites where the spreader may be used cannot be relied upon the have electrical sources.
It would be desirable to provide a spreader which could lay a membrane or layer of adhesive material of a predetermined thickness with good accuracy and which is easy to use from a standing position. It would also be desirable if the spreader had some capability to reliably and evenly distribute the adhesive material ahead of the oncoming spatula blade. A further desirable attribute would be the ability to remove excess adhesive material when required. To accomplish these and other pertinent effects with a tool which is easy to maintain and clean and which requires no external input other than the driving force given by the person operating it would also be most desirable.
From the applicant's prior international application WO 02/100555 is known an apparatus for laying beds of an adhesive on a surface such as a floor.
From WO 2010/041083 is known another apparatus for laying of beads of adhesive on a surface to be covered. Said apparatus comprising a wheeled chassis supporting a reservoir of adhesive, an adhesive dispensing head having a plurality of outlet nozzles for adhesive supplied thereto via a pipe connecting the reservoir to the dispensing head. The apparatus is furthermore power driven for driving the apparatus at a constant speed.
From DE 27 09 771 is known yet another wheeled apparatus for laying of beads of adhesive on a surface. The disclosed apparatus comprises a container for a bag filled with adhesive. During use the adhesive is pressed through an opening in the bag and spread in a layer on the floor.